Brand Leaders: Aparna Thyagarajan, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Shobitam

Aparna Thyagarajan, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Shobitam

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Education
Masters in Computer Applications

Career history
• Co-founder, Shobitam
• Software Lead at Microsoft for 10 years

Role & responsibilities
• As the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, I’m responsible for all Shobitam products as well as the weavers/artisans community and outreach with future roadmap.
• Helping people “Look Good. Do Good and Feel Good” is our ultimate mission!
Strengths
• Passion for fashion with great design sensibilities of global markets.
• Deep technology experience to leverage and disrupt the handlooms space.
• Finest attention to detail for precision quality.
• No prior entrepreneurial experience but an ambitious woman leader and entrepreneur building Shobitam with a great team!

Aspiration
• Democratize ethnic fashion globally.
• Build Shobitam as a world class D2C brand from India for the world!

Game changing retail technologies
• Custom-built Rite Track App – to connect all our weavers / artisans end-to-end from the start with full inventory visibility and every step of our supply chain till delivery of products to customers.
• Custom-built Automated Blouse Stitching Solution – has been a game changer for our customers and us to globally collect size measurements get blouse stitching done across all our tailors.

Skills that helped you succeed
• Fashion design skills for best selections.
• Creative entrepreneur and aggressive results-driven skills leveraging technology in a traditional handlooms and arts space.

Lessons learned
• Customer obsession beats everything else!
• Product market fit – Build a great product with solution, and customers from all around the world will show their love and loyalty.
• Leverage technology to scale!

Role model
Amancio Ortega, Founder of Zara

Learning from your career
• There is no better teacher than experience!
• As an entrepreneur, if you are passionate about an idea, there is no right time or place to pursue it. Don’t be afraid to learn along the way. Just do it!
• Don’t just look for mentors, ȱ nd your sponsors. Your career will be great!

Life mantra
• Find your passion, build and obsess on customers. Technology is key but it’s just a means to an end!
• Fashion was my passion. Shobitam is our solution. This is where our passion and experience with fashion and technology blended well with an idea to solve a problem.

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